Oftentimes, a communication device must be provisioned prior to being fully employed within a communication network to facilitate communication with other users. This provisioning is particularly important for wireless communication devices, such as cellular phones or personal digital assistants (PDAs). For example, a wireless communication device is normally programmed with both a mobile identification number (MIN) and a mobile directory number (MDN) to access a wireless communication network to communicate with other communication devices. More specifically, a wireless service provider or carrier assigns a unique MIN and MDN to each phone sold or otherwise provided to a user. If the user subsequently switches to another service provider, the new provider typically assigns the phone a new MIN that is associated with the new carrier. However, the MDN, which represents the actual phone number another party would dial to initiate a connection with the device, may remain the same to facilitate phone number portability, although the user may choose a new MDN to be assigned to the phone. The programmable or provisioning nature of the MDN and the MSN are thus distinguished from the electronic serial number (ESN) or mobile equipment identity (MEID), which the phone manufacturer permanently assigns to allow identification of the phone hardware, and which may be useful in the case of theft or loss of the phone.
In many cases, the wireless service provider may provision a wireless communication device with parameters or values in addition to the MIN and MDN to facilitate the use of a variety of services by the device, such a voice communication, short message service (SMS), Internet access, picture mail, and video mail.
While some provisioning of a wireless communication device may be performed manually by a technician at the time the device is conveyed to the user, most or all of the provisioning may instead be accomplished remotely by way of a server accessible via the wireless communication network. One such method of remote provisioning is termed “over-the-air function” (OTAF), in which an OTAF server is coupled with a wireless communication device requesting provisioning by way of a mobile switching center (MSC). Typically, a user initiates such provisioning by way of a specialized call, such as “*2” on the cellular phone for customer service, which the MSC then routes to the OTAF server.
Another form of remote provisioning is Internet-based over-the-air (IOTA) provisioning, which is accomplished by way of a data session between a wireless communication device requesting provisioning and an OTAF server coupled to the Internet. As with OTAF provisioning, an MSC may provide the connection between the device and the IOTA server. However, to initiate the data session, the IOTA server typically requires a phone number, such as the MIN or MDN described above, to be programmed into the wireless communication device prior to the data session.